Dear Copious Notetakers: Organize my notes
January 5, 2016 10:32 PM Subscribe
Help me develop a system to organize my hard copy and electronic notes. I am forgetful and need to be able to find my notes!
In a typical week, I attend many meetings on many different topics. I take lots of notes on an 81/2 X 11 notepad and then...things disintegrate from there. Most notes I leave in the notepad to almost never be referenced again. If I need to type up minutes from a meeting, those pages of notes get torn out, typed and the file saved. Some notes from important meetings that I might need to reference later (but aren't formal enough to require minutes) get torn out and put in paper files.
I feel like I'm not as organized as I should be. Sometimes I know I have notes on a meeting or topic somewhere but can't lay my fingers on it.
How do you organize your notes? Do you scan your hard copy notes and organize in project files or regular meeting files? Do you file all of your hard copy notes? Do you keep different notepads for different recurring meetings? Have you changed to all electronic notes - I don't think that I could do this but I'm curious about those who have and how it works for you.
In a typical week, I attend many meetings on many different topics. I take lots of notes on an 81/2 X 11 notepad and then...things disintegrate from there. Most notes I leave in the notepad to almost never be referenced again. If I need to type up minutes from a meeting, those pages of notes get torn out, typed and the file saved. Some notes from important meetings that I might need to reference later (but aren't formal enough to require minutes) get torn out and put in paper files.
I feel like I'm not as organized as I should be. Sometimes I know I have notes on a meeting or topic somewhere but can't lay my fingers on it.
How do you organize your notes? Do you scan your hard copy notes and organize in project files or regular meeting files? Do you file all of your hard copy notes? Do you keep different notepads for different recurring meetings? Have you changed to all electronic notes - I don't think that I could do this but I'm curious about those who have and how it works for you.
My method is similar to cendawanita's. I carry a notebook which has those easy tear sheets and then I stuff into the designated manila envelope or A4 sized archive box for that meeting. I date and number pages routinely while taking notes and, sometimes, initial the top righthand corner so I can tell the subject quickly - this is my equivalent of cendawanita's post-it flags as I don't separate sections in my daily notebook. When stuffing them in the envelope I staple the day's notes together and put a big underlined title on the front. I find the extra step of filing them into binders too much to bother with so am fine with manila envelopes/ boxes.
I have folders in Evernote with names corresponding to the envelopes. I have been known to put a blank piece of paper in my envelope saying I should refer to a particular item in that Evernote folder, as I prefer to start with hardcopies when referring back to my notes - one could also do it the other way around and add an Evernote note to look at something in the appropriate manila envelope.
The crucial things in this are to title and date everything clearly and file regularly. The notebook is just a gracenote as I often just taken notes on printer paper folded into 4 (in which case I have a specific order so it unfolds into a readable 2-sided page).
posted by tavegyl at 11:56 PM on January 5, 2016
I have folders in Evernote with names corresponding to the envelopes. I have been known to put a blank piece of paper in my envelope saying I should refer to a particular item in that Evernote folder, as I prefer to start with hardcopies when referring back to my notes - one could also do it the other way around and add an Evernote note to look at something in the appropriate manila envelope.
The crucial things in this are to title and date everything clearly and file regularly. The notebook is just a gracenote as I often just taken notes on printer paper folded into 4 (in which case I have a specific order so it unfolds into a readable 2-sided page).
posted by tavegyl at 11:56 PM on January 5, 2016
I take notes by hand. I currently use a bound notebook, but used to use a yellow pad. In either case, all my notes have five common elements, always in the same five places:
Top left hand corner of page: Meeting/note topic
Upper left hand side of page: Logistical details of the meeting (place, phone number, etc.)
Top right hand corner of page: Sequential numbering of notes
Top right hand corner of page, under numbering: Date and time of meeting
Upper right hand side of page: Name of meeting attendees
Every new meeting or subject gets a new page - no mixing topics on a given page of notes.
When I used to use a note pad, at the end of the meeting / day / week / business trip / whenever, I would take the pages, rip them off, and scan all the notes for a given meeting or discussion together and save the PDF with a subject and date in the file name for quick searching. (When I was a consultant, it was CLIENT - SUBJECT DATE.pdf)
Today, I use a notebook where I don't tear the pages out. I create an index at the front of the notebook with Note Number - Date - Note Topic (2 word max). Once I finish each book, I do a quick digitization (PDF) of the entire book with a document camera so I can go back for things later when I need them.
In either case, all scanned files are all kept in Dropbox.
posted by NotMyselfRightNow at 4:30 AM on January 6, 2016
Top left hand corner of page: Meeting/note topic
Upper left hand side of page: Logistical details of the meeting (place, phone number, etc.)
Top right hand corner of page: Sequential numbering of notes
Top right hand corner of page, under numbering: Date and time of meeting
Upper right hand side of page: Name of meeting attendees
Every new meeting or subject gets a new page - no mixing topics on a given page of notes.
When I used to use a note pad, at the end of the meeting / day / week / business trip / whenever, I would take the pages, rip them off, and scan all the notes for a given meeting or discussion together and save the PDF with a subject and date in the file name for quick searching. (When I was a consultant, it was CLIENT - SUBJECT DATE.pdf)
Today, I use a notebook where I don't tear the pages out. I create an index at the front of the notebook with Note Number - Date - Note Topic (2 word max). Once I finish each book, I do a quick digitization (PDF) of the entire book with a document camera so I can go back for things later when I need them.
In either case, all scanned files are all kept in Dropbox.
posted by NotMyselfRightNow at 4:30 AM on January 6, 2016
Possibly a dumb question but can you take your notes on a laptop or tablet? I realized I frequently took notes on paper, then typed them up after the fact. These are frequently from things I would write about later so I would tell myself that typing the notes up is Part Of My Process, and I'm someone who learns by writing, but it really is a wasted step for me that I skip when possible, especially if I have to turn something around quickly.
I've tried Evernote and such but honestly, lately I've just been using Simplenote. Once the notes are somewhere, I can search them easily, like I search Gmail. It may be helpful to think of how you search for things. For example, I tried to sort my email by project but the way I remember emails is by sender and recipients so coming up with A System is not imperative, in my opinion.
Minimizing the paper I have lying around is a long-term goal for me. I don't need that much paper because people send meeting files before so I already have them electronically. If I have all of my files electronically, it's easier for me to work remotely and help colleagues working remotely.
posted by kat518 at 5:37 AM on January 6, 2016
I've tried Evernote and such but honestly, lately I've just been using Simplenote. Once the notes are somewhere, I can search them easily, like I search Gmail. It may be helpful to think of how you search for things. For example, I tried to sort my email by project but the way I remember emails is by sender and recipients so coming up with A System is not imperative, in my opinion.
Minimizing the paper I have lying around is a long-term goal for me. I don't need that much paper because people send meeting files before so I already have them electronically. If I have all of my files electronically, it's easier for me to work remotely and help colleagues working remotely.
posted by kat518 at 5:37 AM on January 6, 2016
I take all my notes on steno pads, then transcribe / summarize into a text document and saved to Dropbox. Often I also upload or cut and paste into Salesforce.com or Confluence. Writing and then re-typing may sound like wasted effort, but I've found the double effort, which usually only takes 5 minutes, dramatically increases my ability to remember the info without needing to refer back to the notes.
posted by COD at 6:05 AM on January 6, 2016 [2 favorites]
posted by COD at 6:05 AM on January 6, 2016 [2 favorites]
You have to do something with your notes immediately, otherwise they're worthless. I think organizing notes is less about how you do things and more about what you do. Here's what I do:
1. have a field in your notes for Action Items (or next steps, or follow-up, or key decisions) - anything important.
2. After the meeting, type up your notes. Make sense of the scribble. Save them or share them or whatever.
3. Throw away the messy on-the-fly notes.
posted by entropone at 8:04 AM on January 6, 2016 [1 favorite]
1. have a field in your notes for Action Items (or next steps, or follow-up, or key decisions) - anything important.
2. After the meeting, type up your notes. Make sense of the scribble. Save them or share them or whatever.
3. Throw away the messy on-the-fly notes.
posted by entropone at 8:04 AM on January 6, 2016 [1 favorite]
Have you looked into Evernote? It's apparently falling out of favor with the tech crowd, but you can take photos of text and it'll recognize handwriting and make it searchable. You can also file your notes into folders and stacks and tag and date each note. Then just search for what you need. I use to to take photos of whiteboards for record-keeping.
posted by Brittanie at 10:37 AM on January 6, 2016
posted by Brittanie at 10:37 AM on January 6, 2016
If you already have MS Office, I would look at MS OneNote for note taking and organizing notes. I've been using it for years as a place for to-do lists, creative ideas to remember, meeting notes, etc.
I take copious notes by hand and I also used to struggle with what to do with the notes after a notebook is filled out. Nowadays I transcribe them while watching a semi-active tv show in the background (currently NCIS, used to be CSI). There is just enough going on that my brain doesn't get bored but it's light enough (and has enough repetitive car chases) that I can decipher my handwriting. I also don't copy every single thing down verbatim and categorize/tag everything. I do this about once a week.
posted by A hidden well at 11:54 AM on January 6, 2016 [1 favorite]
I take copious notes by hand and I also used to struggle with what to do with the notes after a notebook is filled out. Nowadays I transcribe them while watching a semi-active tv show in the background (currently NCIS, used to be CSI). There is just enough going on that my brain doesn't get bored but it's light enough (and has enough repetitive car chases) that I can decipher my handwriting. I also don't copy every single thing down verbatim and categorize/tag everything. I do this about once a week.
posted by A hidden well at 11:54 AM on January 6, 2016 [1 favorite]
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1. Either a pad with holes pre-punched into them, or an organiser/binder with looseleaf sheets in a ring binder. That's my everyday journal/notebook.
2. Tab stickers/post-it flags. I use these to separate sections in the daily notebook.
3. Once I'm done with those notes, I re-file those sheets in another folder, that's already sectioned (work unit meetings/team meetings/organisation POPP stuff/misc projects) or to be sectioned with those tab stickers. I file them chronologically. For intensively used sections, I also add an index page before that section, just to list items in that section.
This is a purely manual system, but if I want certain notes to also be in softcopy, I scan those in via Evernote, and tag accordingly.
Good luck! I've learned that my work can't depend on perfectly bound notebooks - there are too many disparate projects to keep track of and my notebooks are basically only organised chronologically but not thematically, as a result.
posted by cendawanita at 11:02 PM on January 5, 2016 [3 favorites]